{"id":1235,"date":"2007-03-06T11:19:01","date_gmt":"2007-03-06T16:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2007\/03\/legalize-sports-betting-in-the-garden-state\/"},"modified":"2007-03-06T11:19:01","modified_gmt":"2007-03-06T16:19:01","slug":"legalize-sports-betting-in-the-garden-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2007\/03\/legalize-sports-betting-in-the-garden-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Legalize Sports Betting in the Garden State"},"content":{"rendered":"

We should legalize sports betting in New Jersey. Simple as that.
\nThere are some hurdles, however. For starters, according to some arcane federal law, only four states are currently allowed to offer sports betting — Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware.
\nNow, Nevada has Vegas, where nearly every casino operates a sports book. Oregon, up until a month ago, allowed limited NFL betting, and Montana also allows limited action at a handful of bars and taverns.
\nAnd Delaware? Well, it looks like they may be smartening up. A bill is being introduced in their legislature to allow a sports book to open at Dover Downs racetrack.
\nAs for New Jersey, pushes for legalized betting have come and gone, though now, powerful state Sen. Ray Lesniak is planning on introducing a resolution that would take the issue to the United States Congress.
\nWhile that\u2019s all well and good, I don\u2019t think politicians have much say in the matter.
\nYou ask me, there\u2019s only two teams in this game: The casinos vs. the sports leagues.
\nThe sports leagues simply do not want any more legalized sports betting.
\n“It would send two very bad messages,” NFL attorney Jay Moyer has previously told New Jersey officials, according to the AP. “One is that anything goes when it comes to raising revenues, and two, that gambling and sports are natural partners.”
\nYeah, um, Mr. Moyer? You might want to get your head out of the sand, lest you suffocate.
\nFirst off, without betting, sports leagues would probably go belly up, especially the NFL. For every tried-and-true NFL fan, I bet there\u2019s 100 who are only interested in the point spreads and fantasy stats.
\nAnd when it comes to “anything goes” and raising revenues, the answer to that is “Hell yes, anything goes.” And the money that could be raised with legalized sports betting is of budget-changing, property tax-lowering proportions.
\nSome stats, courtesy of Forbes: Vegas takes some $2.5 billion in sports bets each year. Figure a standard five percent “vig” (the cut the casino takes) and that\u2019s $125 million into the casino\u2019s pockets.
\nNow, while $2.5 billion is a lot, consider this number: $230 billion. That\u2019s a best-guess estimate of what\u2019s “illegally” bet in this great nation each year.
\nNow get this: Vegas, for all it\u2019s charms, is still in the middle of the desert, and people have to fly to get there. Atlantic City, on the other hand? There\u2019s 62 million people — 20 percent of the nation\u2019s population — within a 300 mile radius.
\nTaking all these numbers one step further, if A.C. managed to score 20 percent of the $230 billion illegally bet each year, that would be $46 billion legally bet in our casinos. Take the five percent vig, and that\u2019s $2.3 billion.
\n(And why would bettors choose A.C. over their current bookies? Because most illegal bookies charge a 10 percent vig. Simple as that.)
\nNow, the hard part: New Jersey must take half that $2.3 billion — just like Pennsylvania takes from it\u2019s casinos — a far cry from the eight percent we now charge A.C. operators. So let\u2019s call it an even billion into the state\u2019s coffers.
\nOne more step: There\u2019s some 1.2 million property tax payers in the state. Do the math, and the resulting number — $833 — could go to each and every one of us.
\n(You can put your calculators away now.)
\nGranted, the numbers above are wildly best-case scenarios, but the fact remains: Sports betting is huge, denying it exists is foolish, and we\u2019re wasting a golden opportunity to increase revenue.
\nOr, as Lesniak put it, “Why should millions of dollars go to Las Vegas, offshore casinos, and the mob?”
\nGood question.
\nSource: Trentonian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We should legalize sports betting in New Jersey. Simple as that. There are some hurdles, however. For starters, according to some arcane federal law, only four states are currently allowed to offer sports betting — Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware. Now, Nevada has Vegas, where nearly every casino operates a sports book. Oregon, up until … Continue reading Legalize Sports Betting in the Garden State<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}